Explorer suffers frostbite in Antarctica

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British adventurer suffers frostbite after trying to fix a ski binding

The expedition viewed as last great polar challenge

Rest of team will continue on 4,000 km journey without Fiennes

Frostbite has forced British adventurer Ranulph Fiennes to quit his attempt to cross the Antarctic in winter -- a challenge his team regarded as the coldest journey on earth.

Tony Medniuk, the chairman of the expedition, said Fiennes' hand was frostbitten when he had to fix a loose ski binding with his bare hands in temperatures of around minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit).

"It is the last remaining great polar challenge," Medniuk told CNN.

"He was going to be on skis, in specially adapted clothing to withstand the temperatures, so that he would be the first person to actually ski across the Antarctic in winter."

Fiennes' evacuation has been delayed by a blizzard but he is expected to be transported by skidoo to the Princess Elisabeth Station about 70 kilometers (44 miles) away from his current position. From there he will be flown to Novo to get a connecting flight to Cape Town.

The other five members of the expedition will continue the journey without Fiennes as their leader, Medniuk said.

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Ranulph Fiennes on Antarctic adventure

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They plan to travel almost 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) through icy wilderness mostly in complete darkness and in temperatures as low as minus 90 degrees Celsius. The journey is expected to take six months.

A Norwegian team recently completed a winter crossing of the Arctic but this is the first attempt to traverse the Antarctic.

Fiennes has previously been the first person to reach both the North and South Poles by land and the first to cross Antarctica on foot.

The team set sail from London in December and were building a base camp and supply depot inland from Crown Bay when Fiennes developed the case of frostbite. They are due to begin the polar crossing as scheduled on March 21.

Fiennes, who lost five fingers to frostbite on a previous expedition and also suffered heart problems during an attempt to climb Mt Everest, was sanguine about the risks of this adventure.

"I don't think about not coming back, because I mean, more people get killed on the roads here [London] than they do in Antarctica. I mean, I had a massive heart attack reading a magazine on an airplane. You don't need to go to Antarctica to pop it."

The expedition also aims to collect data on how climate change is affecting the Antarctic icecap in winter and raise $10 million for the blindness charity Seeing is Believing.